THE league pacesetters came to Spring Lane on Saturday in buoyant mood, knowing that a comprehensive victory before Christmas over Malvern had made them clear favourites to take the honours in their penultimate game before their title showdown against Bromsgrove.

MALVERN 22pts, DERBY 10pts

The Malvern players had other ideas, having trained intensively over the past month with this fixture firmly in their sights.

Derby's big pack came out with the intention of rumbling through with the driving maul and using their weight advantage in the tight and dominating the lineout. It didn't happen.

In every area of the game, the Malvern team matched them, ground them down and forced errors to turn the game to their own advantage. For the first 15 minutes, Malvern soaked up the pressure from the men in black until a forward drive gave Kiwi scrum half Gray Cornelius just enough space to squeeze through for a try. Significantly, the Malvern rush made him miss his kick in front of posts.

The home side took the ball on from the restart and stayed in Derby territory, recycling intelligently and forcing errors. A cynical stamp on centre Dan Cullen went unpunished, no deserved card being shown, but Andy Longley slotted over the resultant penalty and Malvern were fired up and back in contention.

With Chris Smith and Aidan Ruddock in fine form at the lineout, Malvern disrupted and stole Derby's ball, the backs interpassed and Longley's deceptive run created the gap for Cullen to take his revenge with a classic try, the full back calmly slotting the extra two points.

On the half-hour Malvern's constant pressure was rewarded with another penalty and Longley again made no mistake. Towards the end of the half Derby tried to close down the play and keep it tight, creating an eventual overlap for full back Ratcliffe to score, but a nervous Cornelius again fluffed the conversion.

Changing over at 13-10 ahead and the wind behind them, the Malvern players continued to grow in stature. They repeatedly shoved the big Derby pack around in the tight, creating opportunities for number eight Jamie Anderson to burst from the back of the scrum and lead charge after charge.

The marauding Malvern forwards were becoming so dominant that Derby started conceding penalties, Longley thus stretched Malvern's lead in the 43rd and 46th minutes.

For the second time Derby conceded the extra 10 metres and Longley meted out the required punishment. Skipper Dave Irish kept his men fired up as the game entered the final quarter.

Wingers Fleming and Martin kept the Derby wide players quiet and any counter attack was quickly snuffed out as Malvern made every tackle count to keep the visitors penned in their own half.

With 12 minutes left, Cooper was sin-binned and Derby's hopes rose - even more so when Humphreys was also carded and Malvern were down to 13 men.

However, the home side controlled the remaining time until the final whistle and set the seal on a famous victory.